Douglas Road Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has announced his historical walking tours for June, which have a focus on the city centre’s development and also on the city’s nineteenth century social history. He will conduct walks across the city centre, Blackrock, and also around the site of the Cork Union Workhouse, now St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road.

Cllr McCarthy noted: “It has been great to bring back the historical walking tours and to showcase Cork City’s unique character, plan, topography, and built fabric. It is also a city that is unique among other cities, it is the only one which has experienced all phases of Irish urban development, from circa 600AD to the present day. So, there is so many histories to view in just a cross section of a section of the city centre. I am also delighted this June to collaborate with the fantastic Cork Harbour Festival team”.

“I am also delighted to be able to bring back my tour of Blackrock Village and to speak about the old workhouse site in St Finbarr’s Hospital. Both tours attracted large groups of people before Covid hit. The old workhouse site offers an interesting lens to view the realities of living in a port city, beset by large scale poverty, whereby everyone did not make money and lived in a sense on the edge of making ends meet”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.

Kieran’s June 2022 Historical Walking Tours:

Saturday 11 June 2022, Cork and the River Lee, An Introduction to the Historical Development of Cork City; meet at the National Monument, Grand Parade, 2pm, in association with Cork Harbour Festival (free, 2 hours, no booking required for all tours).

Sunday 12 June 2022, Stories from Blackrock and Mahon, Historical Walking Tour; meet in the courtyard of outside Blackrock Castle, 2pm, in association with Cork Harbour Festival (free, 2 hours, finishes at old railway line walk).

Saturday 18 June 2022, The Workhouse and St Finbarr’s Hospital; meet at entrance to St Finbarr’s Hospital, Douglas Road, 2pm (free, 2 hours).